1. Examine closely the plates for one of Blake's plates. What is the relationship between the plate and the poem? How does the visual support or contradict the verbal? Please do not discuss "The Tyger."
2. Does Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" support (or complicate) any of the ideas presented in Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"?
3. Is Jane Eyre a text that supports the British Empire? Explore the representation of Bertha, the mission of St. John, and Jane's discussion of her pupils at the village school. Does the text celebrate Empire or critique it? Is it consistent? As you answer, consider the ways in which the narrative voice might complicate this question.
4. Does Joanna Baillie's "London" represent the sublime, as described by Burke (499-505)? If so, what do you think is important about her representation of London as sublime? If not, why do you think she represents London as sublime?
5. Compare the representation of women in Keats's "La Belle Dame Sans Mercy" and another poem--for instance, Keats's "Eve of St. Agnes," Coleridge's "Kubla Khan," or Shelley's "To Jane." What are the implications of the differences and similarities?
6. Challenge one of the arguments about poetry presented by one of the Romantics (don't forget their letters as a possible source). You might choose to use one of his own poems to refute part of his argument; you might also look at internal inconsistencies, or philosophical/political problems with his claims.
7. Several of the poems we have examined so far have had ambiguous endings. Examine one or two poems closely and explore how the ending of the poem(s) affects your interpretation of the rest of the poem. Look closely at content (including individual word choice) but also form (meter, rhyme, stanza breaks, etc.) as you compose your argument.
8. Examine the rhyme scheme of one of the poems (such as Wordsworth's "Ode: Intimations of Immortality") we have read this semester. How does the rhyme scheme help to create meaning for the poem? You might look not only at what rhymes but what doesn't rhyme; consider, too, the rhyme scheme as a whole.
9. Compare the representation of women in Keats's "La Belle Dame Sans Mercy" and another poem--for instance, Keats's "Eve of St. Agnes," Coleridge's "Kubla Khan," or Shelley's "To Jane." What are the implications of the differences and similarities?